Google's recent security issues may have been a concern for their customers and it may even make them re-think whether or not to store sensitive data “in the cloud.” Does it warrant a closer look than that, however? Some think so, including the Electronics Privacy Information Center, which is petitioning the FTC to investigate Google's security practices. EPIC wants the FTC to probe the recent privacy breaches, as well as their cloud computing service as a whole, and determine if Google is slipping in the security category.

They also go a bit further and want to find out if Google is being “deceptive” when it comes to advertising their services, in which case they want to stop Google from providing service until they fix it. The latter you can probably expect not to happen, although there might be some weight when dealing with Google's paid business customers. But let's face it, many very large companies have had massive, public issues with security. Is there a particular reason for singling Google out? Not to mention, cloud computing is a relatively new technology, even if the concept is very old. There's going to be issues from time to time – does it warrant government intervention?